The Guardian view on Brexit: Wrong then, wrong now, wrong in the future | Editorial

In one of the several low points of her stunningly inept general election campaign, Theresa May warned that Jeremy Corbyn would be “alone and naked” in the Brexit negotiating chamber. This week, though, it is Mrs May herself who has been revealed as Brexit’s empress with no clothes. Everything about her performance in Brussels over the last two days has underlined both the larger national tragedy of Britain’s decision to leave the EU and the deepening personal failure of Mrs May’s attempts to deliver it.

Mrs May went to this week’s Brussels summit promising a “fair and serious” offer on the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and of UK citizens in the EU, after Brexit. She met a humiliating response. The EU-27 told her these were not matters for a summit but for the negotiations. Angela Merkel said the proposals were no breakthrough. Emmanuel Macron said there was a long way to go. Even Donald Tusk, often a friend of Britain, called them “below expectations.” Meanwhile in Britain, EU citizens’ groups dubbed the plan pathetic, and George Osborne revealed that Mrs May had unilaterally prevented a fairer and more serious offer immediately after the referendum last June because that would strengthen her leadership election chances.

The post-Brexit future of EU citizens in this country, and of our citizens in the EU are widespread concerns across our continent. The uncertainty reaches into thousands of homes and affects millions of lives, especially of young people. Mrs May’s insensitive handling of it is both characteristic and a glumly indicative example of a wider Brexit problem that stretches to every horizon.

Mrs May likes to say that 85% of Britons have recently voted for parties committed to Brexit. But this is another clunky line she should stop repeating. The 85% of Britons who voted Tory and Labour on 8 June did not all vote for a Brexit that prioritises heartless immigration controls or spurns the European court of justice. They have certainly not, as Philip Hammond rightly warned this week, voted to become poorer, less secure, or to treat Europe in ways that risk the economy crashing if the talks reach impasse.

Britain’s decision to leave the EU was lamentable when it was taken. It remains lamentable now. If it is ever carried out, it will still be lamentable in the future. That is not going to change. Some things, however, have changed. A year ago, Britain’s decision caused shock among our fellow Europeans. Today, it is more likely to evoke pity. By the time Brexit occurs, if it does, our neighbours’ mood may have turned to derision. Brexit and the US election have energised our neighbours to raise their game. Mr Macron’s election lends momentum to reforms that the UK would back if it had remained. Just when the EU seems to be choosing a more hopeful course, it is Britain, not the EU, that seems left behind by the real world. It was tragic to hear Mrs May talk on Friday of cooperation on terrorism, defence, climate change, trade and migration with good allies that the UK is preparing to abandon.

The events of the past 12 months, and of the last 48 hours in particular, have provided a vivid lesson in the folly of Brexit. For a year, Mrs May has expended most of her leadership of the Conservative party attempting to forge – the word is appropriate – a new deal with the EU that will be worse than the one we now have in every significant respect: economically, socially and culturally. On 8 June, the voters pulled the rug from under her feet. The upshot is a Brexit process that was wrong in the first place, has been badly mishandled, and now lacks credibility at home and in the EU. There is an overwhelming need, and perhaps a burgeoning consensus, for Britain to change its Brexit priorities. We need a closer and more engaged relationship with the EU than the one Mrs May has pursued so ineffectually.